The present invention relates generally to a telephone calling system and, more particularly, to a method and system for receiving and processing offers from a calling party to place one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party.
With the long distance telephone market becoming nearly saturated with supply, competition among long distance carriers for new business has increased dramatically. On average, over two hundred million (200 million) long distance calls are placed each day in the United States. When profits per subscriber are considered, it is clear why long distance carriers are so aggressive in their pursuit of new accounts. While reputable long distance carriers will spend large amounts of money to legitimately acquire each new account, some carriers will nonetheless change a customer""s long distance carrier without the customer""s permission, in a process referred to as xe2x80x9cslamming.xe2x80x9d
Once a long distance carrier has made the initial investment to provide a network offering sufficient quality and capacity, the incremental profit to complete each additional call has been estimated to be as high as ninety eight percent (98%). Accordingly, long distance carriers are constantly searching for new techniques and promotions to encourage new accounts. For example, as an added incentive to open or maintain an account, many long distance carriers offer reward programs, such as the True Rewards(trademark) program offered by ATandT, that provide subscribers with discounts and free gifts. In addition, many long distance carriers offer cash incentives to encourage a potential new customer to switch long distance carriers. For example, many long distance companies will mail a check to a potential customer to encourage that customer to switch his or her long distance carrier. If a potential customer cashes the check, the endorsement on the check also serves as an authorization to change the customer""s long distance provider. In addition many long distance carriers offer various promotions and marketing campaigns to encourage long distance usage, such as MCI""s xe2x80x9cFriends and Familyxe2x80x9d(trademark) promotion and Sprint""s xe2x80x9cTen Cents Per Minutexe2x80x9d(trademark) promotion. Although such programs help to attract new accounts and build customer loyalty, most consumers are not particularly xe2x80x9cbrandxe2x80x9d conscious when it comes to telephone service, and cost is often the prevailing factor.
Although the costs associated with long distance calls have dropped and are expected to continue dropping dramatically in the United States and other countries as the result of increased competition, the cost of a long distance call remains sufficiently prohibitive to discourage many people from placing as many long distance calls as they would like. In addition, most callers are typically unfamiliar with the rate structure associated with placing calls to various geographical areas at various times of day. Thus, the inability to identify and control the cost of a long distance call has further contributed to the reluctance of many people to place more long distance calls.
While many large customers, such as corporate customers, often have sufficient leverage to negotiate their long distance rates with a long distance carrier, or to permit carriers to bid for their account, it is impractical, given current telephone systems, for long distance providers to individually negotiate long distance rates with the average consumer. In addition, many large customers have accounts with a number of different long distance carriers, and employ xe2x80x9cleast cost routingxe2x80x9d technology in their proprietary private branch exchange (PBX) switches or other customer-premises equipment. This technology enables them to select the most cost-effective carrier on a per-call basis using stored rate information. Again, such a cost-reduction solution is not available to the average consumer, who typically has only one long distance provider.
In addition, a number of systems have been proposed or developed to permit carriers to submit bids for telephone calls. U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,602, entitled xe2x80x9cBidding for Telecommunications Traffic,xe2x80x9d to Johnson et al., discloses a system that permits carriers to bid on telecommunications traffic. In the disclosed system, each carrier submits a bid informing a central bidding moderator of the rate the carrier is willing to offer subscribers for a connection between two points at a specific time. The bid information is then compiled by the bidding moderator and sorted based on the identified connection points. In addition, the sorted bid information is then transmitted to distributed processors at each participating switch location and to all network management centers. A subscriber can then select a carrier to place a particular call from the sorted bid information.
Recently, the Phonemiser(trademark) and Rate Hunter(trademark) systems have been developed to permit a calling party to contact the system and identify the telephone number of a party to be called. The respective systems then use stored rate information to identify the long distance carrier offering the most cost-effective rate to complete the call. Once found, the call is handled by the identified cost-effective carrier. The Phonemiser(trademark) and Rate Hunter(trademark) systems utilize stored rate information to select a particular carrier, and do not facilitate real-time negotiation with individual long distance carriers. In addition, the Phonemiser(trademark) and Rate Hunter(trademark) systems do not permit the call to be completed in accordance with restrictions specified by the calling party.
As apparent from the above deficiencies with conventional telephone calling systems, a need exists for a system that processes offers from a calling party to place one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. A further need exists for a caller-driven system that permits a long distance carrier to complete a telephone call at a price set by the calling party, typically below the carrier""s published rate. Yet another need exists for a system that permits long distance carriers to stimulate sales of excess network capacity, without compromising their published rate structure.
Disclosed is a conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system for receiving and processing CPOs for telephone calls from calling parties. The CPO management system processes the CPO to determine whether one or more long distance carriers, referred to herein as an xe2x80x9cinterexchange carrierxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ccarrier,xe2x80x9d is willing to accept a given CPO and complete a telephone call in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. If accepted, the CPO management system binds the calling party on behalf of the accepting interexchange carrier, to form a legally binding contract. According to an aspect of the invention, a calling party can submit a CPO for an individual telephone call, a package of calls to one or more called parties, or for a contract to provide telephone service for a predefined period of time. The conditions defined by the calling party may include the telephone number to be called, the maximum price, one or more preferred carriers, if any, as well as any time limitations, such as a particular time-of-day or minimum call duration.
The CPO management system is interconnected with one or more calling parties and one or more long distance carriers, referred to as interexchange carriers, who may route a call to a desired called party. A calling party, desiring to call a called party, may submit an offer to the CPO management system for one or more telephone calls in accordance with restrictions defined by the calling party. Preferably, the calling party initially dials the telephone number assigned to the CPO management system to provide the CPO management system with the terms of the CPO. Alternatively, the calling party can initially contact the CPO management system by means of online access or e-mail using the Internet. Once the calling party contacts the CPO management system, the calling party then submits the terms of the CPO to the CPO management system, such as the maximum price for the call and the telephone number of the called party.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the CPO management system preferably provides an optional agency feature that permits the CPO management system to accept or reject a given CPO on behalf of certain agency-based interexchange carriers who have delegated such authority to the CPO management system. Thus, the CPO management system preferably (i) evaluates CPOs on behalf of certain agency-based interexchange carriers who have delegated authority for deciding to accept or reject a given CPO to the CPO management system; and (ii) permits broadcast-based interexchange carriers to evaluate CPOs independently. The CPO management system can provide a CPO to each broadcast-based interexchange carrier, for example, by means of a broadcast transmission, or by means of posting the CPO on an electronic bulletin board accessible by each broadcast-based interexchange carrier.
Once the terms of a CPO have been received by the CPO management system, a CPO management process is preferably executed to (i) provide each CPO to the interexchange carriers and (ii) to determine if the terms of the offer have been accepted by any interexchange carrier. The calling party is notified of the response of the interexchange carriers and, if accepted, the calling party is bound to complete and pay for a call having the appropriate restrictions which meet the conditions defined by the calling party.